How to completely uninstall drivers in XP?

General Software Discuss, How to completely uninstall drivers in XP? at Software forum; Device Manager in XP shows the following four generic Microsoft driver files installed on my Acer laptop for the Matshita UJDA740 DVD/CDRW: cdrom.sys, imapi.sys, redbook.sys, and storprop.dll. In addition NTIDrvr.sys (NewTech Infosystems) and PxHelp20.sys (Sonic) are also shown. NTI CD-Maker 2000 Plus came preinstalled, and was working when I last

Posted: 30-09-2004

oneillpt (New on Forum): Posts: 1

Device Manager in XP shows the following four generic Microsoft driver files installed on my Acer laptop for the Matshita UJDA740 DVD/CDRW: cdrom.sys, imapi.sys, redbook.sys, and storprop.dll.

In addition NTIDrvr.sys (NewTech Infosystems) and PxHelp20.sys (Sonic) are also shown.

NTI CD-Maker 2000 Plus came preinstalled, and was working when I last burnt a CD with it. Now, although I can still burn a CD by sending the files to the drive in Windows Explorer, starting NTI CD-Maker gives an immediate blue screen stop 0x0000008E in NTIDrvr.sys.

I suspect PxHelp20.sys is a stray driver file left behind by an incomplete uninstallation of other software. The only other Sonic file I find on disk is PxHelp20.inf, and the blue screen stop address is at a call statement in a disassembly ("call ntoskrnl.IofCallDriver"), which leads me to suspect this is a call to a chained device driver which has not been properly initialised. Examination of another Acer laptop with a Matshita drive and NTI software shows only the generic Microsoft files and NTIDrvr.sys installed (although unfortunately the drive is a slightly earlier model, and the NTI software is also a different package, so this comparison could be misleading!)

Since the last CD burnt with NTI CD-Maker I have uninstalled CloneCD, and installed and then uninstalled the software with a Creative MuVo MP3 player. There was no indication in either case that uninstallation had not completed successfully.

I have uninstalled NTI CD-Maker (and NTI FileCD which was also preinstalled), then uninstalled the CDRW driver in Device Manager, then rebooted. However, when the hardware is found NTIDrvr.sys and PxHelp20.sys are automatically installed again in addition to the generic Microsoft driver files, even though both NTI programs have been uninstalled.

Any suggestions for completely removing the driver files, so allowing NTI CD-Maker to add NTIDrvr.sys when it is reinstalled, but avoiding PxHelp20.sys, which I suspect is causing the problem?